5 Best Practices for a Successful Payroll System

Most of the companies use the old fashion technique of payroll alone (sage), which is time consuming and not so efficient and has many errors in the entire process. To manage the system of payroll process in most efficient manner, it can be done in following way.

1.     Making system transparent : it is reduces time, classify employees properly, keep records of  underpaid taxes and other policy issue which will produce copy to all employees and they will understand from it.

2.     Avoid manual calculation: buy avoiding human calculation using human or excel spreadsheet increases error, it is better to use software for reducing errors.

3.  Regularly audit your process: paperwork and process data should match properly because even sometime software’s system also produces error, these error are need to be checked and verified so that process work in most efficient way, so once in year the auditing system is necessary.

4.     Prevent time theft : most of the companies use old method of manually entering the “time in” and “time out” time in register book during working hours. This give employee to chance keep mis-record of time, whether employee was present at work or not. It is difficult to track employee by this method during work hours.

To avoid such problems use modern technique of biometric tracking such as fingerprint and card swipe method so that we can track employee during work hours.

5.  Stay up to date: Our government with the change of year the regulations related to companies’ regulations, labor benefits, taxation, HR policies etc. keep on changing. It should be updated by each company so that the can implement properly in payroll system and provide maximum benefits to their employees.

The best practice of payroll for employees will be upgrading traditional methods by new modern techniques, which will make entire process transparent, less time consuming, and properly monitored process leading to increase in efficiency and effectiveness of entire organization.

5 Best Practices for Managing your Payroll System

35% percent of the average HR department’s time is spent on payroll alone (Sage). In order to maximize the efficiency of your payroll system and prevent errors, you need to follow these best practices for managing your payroll system.

1.      Make Your System Transparent

One of the easiest ways to prevent accidental time theft, mis-classification of employees, underpaid taxes, and other common payroll issues is to produce a pay policy and put it in writing. Post it prominently and provide a copy to every employee.

The policy should lay out:

How employees are classified. Wrongly classifying employees as exempt, nonexempt, or contract can put you in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and place you at risk of a lawsuit or audit.

How wages, salaries, promotions, and raises are calculated; how the pay process works; when changes to payroll go into effect; and how the company deals with payroll mistakes.

2.      Avoid Manual Processes

Are you still calculating payroll by hand or in an Excel spreadsheet? The American Payroll Association estimates that error rates from manual payroll processes can cost you 1% – 8% of your total payroll. The more you automate your payroll system with a payroll services provider or payroll software program, the fewer errors you will have to pay for out of pocket.

Simple ledger mistakes are frequent in manual systems due to its reliance on humans to transcribe hours and calculate wages. These systems are also easy for employees to manipulate.

3.      Regularly Audit Your Processes

Whether you utilize a manual timecard system or one that is computerized, you should audit your processes at least once a year. Even automated systems can produce errors. If these are not caught in time, they can wind up costing you. You may overpay an employee due to a math error, incorrectly classify a new employee’s tax status, or fail to increase the pay rate of an employee who was promised a raise.

Double-check all of your paperwork and processes to ensure everything is functioning properly.

If you are using add-ons or plugins to integrate your payroll software with your time and attendance system or accounting program, make sure that all of the connections are transferring data correctly.

4.      Prevent Time Theft

Time theft occurs when employees intentionally mis-record their hours, take overly long breaks, spend work hours on non-work-related activities, or use “buddy punching” to check in when they aren’t present.

Implement a check-in system that automatically records an employee’s hours when they sign in or swipe their card. You can further decrease fraud by utilizing biometric sign-in hardware such as a fingerprint scanner.

5.      Stay Up-to-Date

IRS tax tables and Federal and state labor regulations change from year to year. It is important that your knowledge of these regulations is current. You can download the latest tax tables from the IRS website. If you use payroll software, make sure that it automatically updates each year so as to keep you in compliance.

Pay particular attention to changes in regulations governing: income tax withholding, state unemployment taxes, child support withholding, and fringe benefit calculation and taxation.

The best practices for business payroll center around preventing errors and fraud that are commonly found in manual payroll processes. Transferring your payroll to a specialized software system or third-party administrator can keep your payroll in better shape. Whether or not you choose to go this route with your payroll, make sure that your process is transparent, that you audit it regularly, and that you keep it current with state and federal labor laws.

How to prevent employees from sleeping at work

Employees in their night shift generally found sleeping or taking nap in between work. But with increasing stress, changing environment and many more reasons employees working on day shift also feeling sleepy these days. Organizations find it as an act of unprofessionalism and can terminate him/her from job immediately. This act is stricter in departments like police, civil services and defense services. But in other hand, many companies providing nap rooms for their employees. In any case, to prevent and help employees from sleeping for any reason, two main steps must be adopted by a company. First step is to analyze the reason of problem and previous performances of the employee then second step is to help them to not get sleepy during work, if they are efficient and hard working employees your company needs. Apart from nap rooms, here are some ideas to prevent them from sleeping at work.

1) Giving a verbal warning is a good suggestion. In actual it should be a humble way of knowing the cause instead of being rude before giving any official warning.

2) Consult the employee who is suffering from fatigue or fighting to stay awake. Suggest him/her to make a change in their work shift which is suitable for them.

3) If the employee is punctual at submitting his work, he/she can even work from his/her home.

4) Shifting the employee workplace to more ventilated and place where there is natural light so he can feel fresh and active.

5) Make the employee to drink plenty of water, green tea and coffee to stay hydrated and avoid feeling tired.

6) Allow them to listen to some music on headphones so that they get sleepy during work.

7) Instruments like doze alerts is a great idea as it start making noise when the employee’s head droop due to sleeping.

Even after adopting all these ways, if they still sleep at work then an official warning can be issued to him/her.